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Osawatomie

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city of Miami county, Kansas, U.S.A., about 45 m. S. by W. of Kansas City, on the Missouri Pacific railway. Pop. (1900) 4191, of whom 227 were negroes; (1905, state census) 4857. A state hospital for the insane (1866) is about 1 m. N.E. of the city. The region is a good one for general farming, and natural gas and petroleum are found in abundance in the vicinity. Osawatomie was settled about 1854 by colonists sent by the Emigrant Aid Company, and was platted in 1855 its name was coined from parts of the words "Osage" and "Pottawatomie." It was the scene of two of the "battles" of the "Border War," and of much of the political violence resulting from the clashes between the "pro-slavery" and the "free-state" factions of Missouri and Kansas. On the 7th of June 1856 it was plundered by about 170 pro-slavery men from Missouri. On the 30th of August 1856 General John W. Reid, commanding about 400 Missourians, attacked the town. The attack was resisted by Captain John Brown (who had come to Osawatomie in the autumn of 1855) at the head of about 40 men, who were soon overpowered. Of Captain Brown's men, four were killed and two were executed. The town was looted and practically destroyed. A park commemorating the battle was dedicated here on the 31st of August 1910.